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I WONDER IF YOU CAN CHANGE YOUR MEDS TO STOP OR AVOID LIPODISTROPHY. I´VE BEEN TAKING TRIZIVIR FOR 8 YEARS I HAVE ALWAYS BEEN A THIN GUY BUT LATELY I HAVE THE IMPRESSION THAT I´M GETTING THINNER. I DO POWER YOGA EVERYDAY FOR ONE HOUR AND A HALF AND I´M VEGETARIAN. I´M NOT CHANGING THESE TWO LAST THINGS BUT MAYBE I WANT TO TRY CHANGING MEDS OR STOPING TAKING THEM. CAN YOU GIVE SOME GOOD ADVICE?

from what I gathered here and elsewhere as well as from my doctor, the efficacy of changing meds to stop lipo seems to vary from patient to patient. Of course some meds are known for being more likely to induce lipodystrophy than others, but since hiv itself has been pointed at for doing the same I am not sure there is a magic formula. And believe me I wish there was.

As far as I am concerned lipo started after 18 months of a dual regimen of zerit - epivir. I spent a little over 2 years on this menu. By the time I switched, last December, my face was definitely thinner, my cheeks nearly gone, the other cheeks, the ones down there, gone too, and my legs, though muscular, are very veiny.

I switched to a Kaletra-Viread-Ziagen combo that is working well for my CD4s/VL. Has lipo stopped? No. Perhaps it slowed down. But I have now to deal with the opposite phenomenon, that of a nascent hump and fat depositing itself mostly on the belly. Luckily this seems mostly subcutaneous, and the hump seems to have slowed its development.

There are some here who've had better and worse experiences with lipo apparently provoked by meds and those who have lipo without being on meds. So I guess this is not a very exact science. As for being a vegetarian, so am I and I wouldn't change that because you are likely to be eating a fairly lean diet. As for yoga, you reminded me that I should get back to it... I used to love it.